Southern Baptist reverend and evangelical leader Pat Robertson tell his audience that the holiday is an opportunity for millions of
citizens the country over to get out there and "celebrate Satan."
"It used to be called All Saints' Eve. Now we know it as Halloween and Saturday is Halloween," Robertson said.
"That's the day when millions of children and adults will be
dressing up as devils, witches, and goblins to celebrate Satan," he
continued. "They don't realize that's what they're doing."
(Crap. How did he figure it all out?)
While Robertson may have been unintentionally summarizing the plot of terrible horror movie Halloween III: Season of the Witch, his views are not necessarily out of step with some of his fellow evangelicals, reports the Washington Post. A recent survey
of Americans conducted by a polling firm named LifeWay Research found
that 21% of those polled "try to avoid Halloween completely," with
another 14% "try to avoid the pagan elements" of the holiday.
The Catholic Church opposes Halloween as well. In 2009, the Vatican actually went so far as to urge parents
not to let their kids celebrate on Oct. 31st, saying the holiday
carried occult tones and encouraged consumerism. Amid last year's
festivities, Pope Francis warned that too many people thought the devil
was a "myth" and "the devil exists and we must fight against him."
But Robertson has always been especially vocal on the
dangers of Satanic influence in society. In 2014, Robertson took to his
show to link Halloween to the ritualistic murder of sheep and other
"demonic rituals."
"The whole idea of trick-or-treating is the Druids would go
to somebody's house and ask for money and if they didn't get money
they'd kill one of their sheep, that was the sheep and it was serious
stuff," the preacher said, according to Right Wing Watch. "All
this business about goblins and jack-o'-lanterns all comes out of
demonic rituals of the Druids and the people who lived in England at
that particular time."
